The National Economic Empowerment Dialogue (NEED) under the stewardship of Joseph Kabuleta Kizza has revealed that it will be dragging government to the Courts of Law over irregularities in the National Identification registration process of Ugandan citizens.
Addressing the media during NEED’s weekly press conference on Monday, Kabuleta, the political movement’s president said government through the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) omitted information about citizenship by descent in the registration process for national identity cards.
He noted that Uganda is the only Common Wealth nation which doesn’t consider citizenship by descent, which he says is unfair especially to persons born by Ugandan citizens outside the East African country.
“All Common Wealth countries have citizenship by descent….. This is the citizenship by virtual that your ancestors were born in that country at the time the nation was formed. So in case of Uganda which was demarcated in 1924,if I can prove that my grandfathers were within those boundaries then, then I am entitled to citizenship by descent, not just birth, I don’t have to be born here,” the former presidential candidate explained.
“If by any chance I was born outside Uganda, even if my parents are Banyoro, I would struggle to get citizenship.”
Kabuleta further disclosed that due to such irregularities, they are assembling a team of public interest lawyers to put up a case in court to find out why government removed nationality by descent from the registration.
The pastor cum politician also lashed out at government for issuing national IDs that expire, to Ugandans.
“Where on earth have you ever heard national IDs with expiry dates?When renewing it, how much shall we pay? How many people will afford such? How many Ugandans shall be having valid National IDs by next general elections? Who will vote if they fail to renew their IDs?” Kabuleta wondered.
In May, 2022, the Minister of State for Internal Affairs, Gen. David Muhoozi disclosed that NIRA will undertake a mass enrolment and renewal exercise of National Identification (ID) cards in 2023.
Muhoozi said NIRA will commence the mass enrollment exercise of National IDs in January 2023 while renewals will start in August 2023 up to August 2025, targeting 17.2 million citizens who have never been registered and 20 million Ugandans who wish to renew their National IDs.
NIRA is a government agency under the Ministry of Internal Affairs charged with the responsibility of registering and issuing identity cards to Ugandans.
According to the minister, the first batch of 15.8 million identity cards that were printed and issued in the 2014/2015 will expire between August 2024 and June 2025, thus justifying need for renewal in accordance with Regulation 19(1) of the Registration of Persons Regulations SI 67 /2015.
“Renewal will happen at each parish in a rotational manner with NIRA deploying 10 registration kits per parish per day. The exercise will happen over a 12-month period beginning August 2023. After this period, these services will be operationalised and delivered at district level,” Muhoozi said.
Apparently, government intends to charge each Ugandan wishing to renew their national ID about Shs50,000.
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